


Two Boys Questin'

by lyrithim



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Happy Ending, M/M, Mutual Pining, Quests, Sleeping Beauty Elements, True Love's Kiss, ten points to Gryffindor if you guess the twist before Dex and Nursey do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-10 19:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11132919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyrithim/pseuds/lyrithim
Summary: Dex is destined to fall in love with the sleeping princess, and Nursey lets him because their love will save Nursey's kingdom.Given this, it's rather cruel of Dex to come around and claim that he's in love with Nursey too.





	Two Boys Questin'

**Author's Note:**

> I began this story as a challenge to myself that I _can_ write 500-word stories and I failed miserably.
> 
> Thanks to winnofdaxam for reading through the fic beforehand. <3

 

>   _A boy of fire, and fire his hair,_  
>  _This hero will the king’s seed save._  
>  _Golden the key, in dragon’s lair,_  
>  _Locked in the whistling silver cave._  
>  _Catch fairy light, land the winged mare,_  
>  _Steal truth from the lost ones in the abyss._  
>  _The champion’s beloved is the throne’s true heir:_  
>  _The curse lives but with the True Love’s Kiss._

So they have come from “Every redheaded son of a smith can fit your ‘hero’ and you pick _me_ ?” to this.

He and Will have retrieved the lost map of the kingdom from the treacherous Island of the Crosses in the _underworld_ itself. Needless to say, that was quite a journey, magical winged horse or not. The map guided them north, past the impenetrable sea of roiling ivy—here. Outside the castle where the sleeping princess lies.

The day before, Derek sat across Will after they carved out a little cave for themselves among the brambles and laid out camp. Not even a year ago, Will had been a scrawny fifth son of an ironsmith, stumbling across the then-unconscious Derek in the town’s frigid shores. Derek himself hadn’t quite believed this cranky, blushing boy was the champion of the riddle—until, that was, they managed to slay a dragon together quite on accident.

By the crackling campfire, Will looked at him with unbarred intensity. Derek, who had been flirting with Will unabashedly up until a week ago, looked away.

“Nurse,” Will said. “Why are you looking for the throne’s heir?”

“As I’ve told you a million times, Dex, I owe my life to the king and queen’s generosity,” drawled Derek, trying for—and failing to hit—that smugness that ticked off Will so much. “And as the last surviving member of the royal guard, it’s my duty to wake the princess from her curse.”

“You don’t remember anything about her.”

That was true. Over the past year he had begun recovering most of his memories, but none regarding the beautiful princess of this lost kingdom. But curses worked in mysterious ways. Maybe the magical invaders of his kingdom hadn’t wanted him to know the princess’s visage before they expelled him.

“But I remember my life debt to her parents,” Derek said. “And the riddle to find her. That’s enough.”

“Derek,” Will began again.

“Dex,” Derek mocked.

“Stop,” Will said steadily. “Listen. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I need you to know that—”

Derek stood up. The fire between them wobbled, then straightened.

“You can’t,” Derek pushed the words out. “God, you can’t do this to me, Will. You can’t tell me you love me when you know you’re going to fall in love with someone else when we reach the castle.”

“But how can I,” Will said, quietly, “when I’m already in love with you?”

The words gutted Derek, but he forged on, because arguing with Will was something he knew how to do. “It’s in the riddle. The plainest part of it. ‘ _The champion’s beloved is the throne’s true heir—_ ’”

“Screw the riddle.” Now Will was standing and marching toward him. He clasped his hands around Derek’s arms and looked up. “ _Derek_ , just believe me this once. Please.”

His hand reached up to cup Derek’s cheek. Derek closed his eyes and counted to ten, before he turned away.

“I think it’s best that we sleep on different sides tonight,” Derek said, as he set up his cot.

Will stood there by the fire’s light. The irises of his eyes glowed with it, and his hair lighted up as though it was on flames. When a gust blew, making the campfire flicker, it was as though Will was twisting and turning too, even though he stood there, where Derek left him, for a long time.

Now, the next day, they stand at the castle doors, wrapped in ivy. Derek remembers these doors. He remembers leaving with his fellow knights when they went to the marketplace to drink and procure merriment, with their captain Sir Jacque and his best friend Christopher. He smooths a hand over the worn padlocks. It has been so long.

They break open the gates and enter. The fairy light they caught illuminates the entire hall, revealing—to their shock—bodies lying haphazardly across the floor. Derek wants to hurl at the sight. That is, until Will checks on a couple of them and returns to Derek with soothing gestures.

“They are asleep. All of them. It is an enchantment.”

Asleep. And at once Derek realizes: the curse is over the whole castle, not just the princess herself. Hope threatens to burst from Derek’s chest. He isn’t the last surviving member of anything after all. His friends live—Sir Justin and Sir Eric and Lady Larissa and the rest. Christopher, with his sweetness and smiles and heart of gold, lives

Will will be happy with the princess. He will be in love. All the lives of these people for one measly heartache on Derek’s part—it’s not even a trade.

Will is checking the pulse of a milk maid slumped against the wall. Derek clasps a hand over his shoulder. Will looks back.

“The royal chambers are up there,” Derek says, nodding at the huge banister overlooking the hall. “You go up there and walk to the end of the corridor. There should be a door that’s flanked by two suits of armors. The royal insignia should be painted over the door. Go through it. You should enter another hallway. On one side is the king and queen’s chamber; the other side should be the princess’s.”

“Why are you telling me this as though you’re not coming with me?” Will asks sharply.

“Because I’m not,” Derek says.

He slides his hand down Will’s arm and holds his hand—just this, just this last touch before Will leaves. As Derek is about to let go, however, Will fingers clamp tightly over his.

“I’m going up there,” Will says, “but it’s to save all these people. Not for some princess I’m supposed to be in love with already. If I come out with the woman acting like an infatuated dumbass, I’m enchanted. Challenge her to a duel.”

“I will,” Derek promises.

Will gives him a long, lingering look and then clatters away to meet his princess.

Derek made the promise because he knows it’s not going to happen instantly, the way Will assumes the riddle dictates. There is no restriction of _when_ Will must love the princess, only that she is his love, and he is granting her a True Love’s Kiss. A kiss from her true love. Will falls in love slowly, reluctantly, fighting it all the way—and then one day he’ll dive in head-first and save her from a herd of angry pegasi and declare his love only when he thinks she’s dead, washed up against the Island of the Crosses—

And here Derek kneels to the ground, right next to a snoring old messenger, as tears overflow, because deep down he always knew Will loves him—he just never wanted to believe it. Will loves him, and Derek pushed him away. Now Will is lost to him forever.

It feels like an eternity before the sleepy silence of the banquet hall is broken by footsteps. Will’s clumsy, frantic footsteps. There is no second pair. Derek stands in alarm.

“What are you even—” Derek begins.

Then Will comes to sight. Alone. Physically unharmed. He looks furious, but that’s his default expression for everything, so Derek really can’t glean anything from that.

He’s also shouting at Derek, which is interesting, since Derek wasn’t even in his presence to piss him off directly.

“Tell me,” Will snaps, striding past the pair of sleeping courtiers at the foot of the staircase, “where did you get the idea of a princess in the first place?”

“It’s in the riddle—”

“No it’s not,” Will says, huffing, as he comes to stand chest-to-chest in front of Dex. “There are _two_ instances in the riddle that mention something like the princess, and that’s, one, ‘ _the king’s seed_ ,’ and, two, ‘ _the throne’s true heir_.’ Tell me, where is ‘princess’ in all this?”

Derek was flustered, not only by Will’s proximity. “I— It says, ‘ _The champion’s beloved is the throne’s true heir_ ’—”

“And I’m in love with you,” Will says simply, and pulls him gently down for a kiss.

The world comes alive around them. Maids lift their heads, servants shake themselves out of their mid-afternoon daze. Lords and ladies find themselves sprawled in the most inelegant positions on the floor. The castle hums in a chorus of rustling fabric, scraping furnitures, and quiet sleepy murmurs. Many of them are looking at the center of the banquet hall, wondering just what the hell the crown prince is doing, entangled with a stranger in such a passionate public display of affection.

Said crown prince, with recently returned memories of being crown prince and the love of his life caught in his arms, doesn’t really care at the moment.

Then Will pulls away.

“You know what’s the dumbest thing?” he asks, all fury and fire. “Is that I didn’t realize it _before_ I saw your portrait in the royal chambers. Honestly? You couldn’t have been a knight. You were worse at horseback riding than I was and fell all the time. And, I mean, you spar well, but I _knew_ you had the looks of someone who stayed indoors all the time to practice on straw dummies. And I _knew_ it wasn’t part of standard knight training to just memorize all those love poems, you bastard, I _saw_ that copy of _Lady G’s Love Potion for Lonely Minds_ on your dresser—”

“Stop insulting me and get on with the kissing, Dex,” Derek said lazily.

“That royal, entitled attitude right there,” Will says, pointing at him. “That’s exactly why you pissed me off the first time I saw you. God, I really should’ve known—”

Derek leans forward to make out with him some more. After all, they have little time to waste before one of his friends or—god forbid—his parents comes down to interrupt them.

**Author's Note:**

> Note 6/9/2017: So I've gotten a decent number of people saying a prequel would be great! And I agree, but I actually have a Stucky Sleeping Beauty AU going on and so am a bit full on Sleeping Beauty AUs. But if anyone wants to write a prequel, it would be the greatest! Just let me know and I'll link it /everywhere/.
> 
> Either way, thank you for reading!


End file.
